Wednesday, August 5, 2015

I just wanted to give an update on our car situation and what the past month has held for us. It has again been a month of waiting and very little response on our car. We contacted Nissan International to see what can be done about our car that is still in the Nissan dealership in Tete and has been for a year now. At first they seemed quite attentive and assured us that the car would be fixed ASAP. Well that was over a month ago now. We received an email from them 3 weeks ago stating that the part they needed had arrived and the car would be fixed that week. We sent several emails in the past couple of weeks because we had not heard anything from them since then. We finally received a response today that said they were still working on the car and they would let us know when it was running satisfactory and that is all. We are going to make the 10 hour trip down to Tete tomorrow and go and see what is going on. A year....It has been a year...Our new car arrives approximately the 29th of August. We need to have this car running and sell it before we can pick up our new car because we need the money from the sale to pay for the customs when the car enters the country. Please pray that this weekend we can figure out what is going on with the car and that we can pick it up. Pray that we would trust God in all of this and that he would help us have patience and respond in the appropriate way as we talk with the people at Nissan. We will be heading down to Maputo the end of August to pick up the new car and then we will be going into SA to get the car outfitted a bit for the rough roads of Mozambique. We will spend about a week there and then drive up through Mozambique. We will be gone about 2 1/2 weeks in total. We are all so excited about it as it will be our first time leaving Lichinga in the 6 months since we arrived back (and if you knew Lichinga, you would know why that is so difficult).

We have also had some issues with the land for the Bible school. Apparently some guy illegally sold the same land we have already purchased to several other people who are now building houses on the land. Tim has had several meetings with the government and people in charge of selling him the land and everything we have done is legal and is official and they are backing us, but a lot of people are very angry at this situation. The people who have paid money for this land and have started to build are now out a lot. It has been a very hard position to be in as they are angry that some rich, white guy is stealing their land. Even though they know what happened wasn't our fault it gets taken out on us as the "rich" foreigners. We don't want to make enemies and have people that are angry and in the end may try to vandalize the school and the property, so please pray we can work this out. They want us to pay them back for all the expenses that they are out, but we can't afford to do that for everyone who has started building and paid for land. The government says they back us, but really aren't doing anything about it. Please pray for a solution, that the people will leave the land without us having to force them off, that the government would do their part, and that there would be peace between all involved.

One other issue, which is smaller, but is causing a lot of inconveniences for us is Tim's cell phone. Many of you heard how he was hit by a motorcycle while running. When they hit him, they also stole his cell phone. It has been a process to replace it and he was able to use another phone, but that one has since broken. He has been about a month with a phone at all. The biggest problem with this is that he does so much communication through the phone and he has missed important calls and people have been unable to get a hold of him and with the land issues, it has been really difficult. We were able to purchase a new one and had a colleague bring it here with her from the States. We got the phone today and it isn't working. We now have to find someone to repair the brand new cell phone and wait still longer...Even though it is in the long run a small thing, it affects us greatly. Please pray it will be resolved quickly.

On a more positive note...we have been full into teaching and doing Marriage seminars. Tim spent all of July teaching. He took a chapa (local transportation) out to village of Itepela and taught on the book of Genesis to a group of believers there. He also taught a week at the YWAM discipleship school on Jesus. We did a three week marriage seminar at the church we normally attend here in Lichinga, that ended last week. We have another marriage seminar scheduled for the weekend of the 22nd of August and another in September. We also have been doing marriage counselling with a young couple here in town. They come from very different backgrounds, but are both believers and are trying to make their marriage work. It will be a difficult road for them both, but we are encouraged by their willingness and determination to make it work. We are grateful for the opportunities God has given us to teach and be involved even without transportation.